India, US launch INDUS-X for technology and defence industry partnership

A factsheet was released for operationalising the 'Defence Innovation Bridge' under the Initiative on Critical and Emerging Technologies at a two-day event in Washington DC

The defence departments of India and the US launched the India-US Defence Acceleration Ecosystem (INDUS-X) on Wednesday in Washington DC. It aims to expand strategic technology partnerships and defence-industrial cooperation between the two countries.

At the event, according to the official release by the Ministry of Defence, a factsheet was released for operationalising the "Defence Innovation Bridge" under the Initiative on Critical and Emerging Technologies (iCET). iCET was announced by US President Joe Biden and Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2022 for cooperation on critical and emerging technologies including artificial intelligence, semiconductors and quantum computing.

The INDUS-X event was hosted by the US-India Business Council on June 20 and 21. The Indian delegation was led by Anurag Bajpai, joint secretary (Defence Industries Promotion) at the Ministry of Defence.

Bajpai stressed on the co-development and co-production of advanced technologies by Indian and US startups. He further asked the participants to develop mechanisms for future collaboration across industries, academia, and investors.

Frank Kendall, secretary of the US Air Force, said that the India-US relationship was growing exponentially. He emphasised that there was an "enormous potential" for startups of both nations to collaborate in deep tech innovations, especially in space and the AI domain.

The support from both governments, according to the ministry, will lead to closer cooperation between the private sectors and catalyse innovation by the research institutions within the defence industrial bases.

"Two panel discussions and two roundtables were held, focussing on deepening collaborations across various domains, including government, academia, and industry, especially startups. Discussion on export control regulations was also held," the press release said.